Questions Abound on June Launch of ESPN 3D For World Cup
Questions abounded Tuesday about ESPN’s announcement that it will launch a dedicated 3D network June 11 with the telecast of the first 2010 World Cup soccer match, between Mexico and South Africa. The announcement, timed to coincide with an expected broad showing of 3D-capable flat-panel TVs and Blu-ray players at this week’s CES, said ESPN 3D will showcase at least 85 live sporting events in its first year.
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“ESPN 3D marries great content with new technology to enhance the fan’s viewing experience and puts ESPN at the forefront of the next big advance for TV viewing,” said ESPN and ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer. Some of the unknowns about how ESPN will cover the World Cup in 3D stem from the network’s recent acknowledgment that it takes a “world feed” of the matches that it doesn’t “control” (CED Oct 22 p1). In early December, Sony announced it would work with World Cup sponsor FIFA to produce matches in 3D. But that announcement was thought to relate mostly to recording important matches, not beaming them live to homes throughout the world.
ESPN, which has tested live sports in 3D with Sony and others the past two years, said the tests have shown the critical importance of camera placements in bringing home the best shots. Referring to ESPN’s tests of live college football in 3D, Bryan Burns, the network’s vice president of strategic business planning, told us that “you don’t get as much of a 3D effect” from a camera with a long lens that’s mounted two levels high at the 40-yard line “as you get from one that is lower, closer to the action, and can really define the depth.” It remains to be seen how ESPN 3D will bring viewers stunning 3D shots of the World Cup, telecasts known for their wide, up-high camera angles. Burns and other ESPN executives were unavailable for comment Tuesday on the 3D announcement.
Separately, CableLabs said it has “expanded support for development of 3D television technology” through the “positive responses” of the CE and content industries. CableLabs “is providing testing capabilities for 3D TV implementation scenarios over cable,” it said. “These capabilities cover a full range of technologies, including various frame-compatible, spatial multiplexing solutions for transmission.”
CableLabs research has found that “many of the digital set-top boxes deployed by cable operators are capable of processing 3D TV signals in frame-compatible formats,” the organization said. “Today’s new generation of 3D TV receivers is expected to support these formats” through an HDMI 1.4 video connection. A frame-compatible 3D format carries separate left and right video signals within the video frame used to convey a conventional 2D high definition signal “by squeezing them to fit within the space of one picture,” CableLabs said. “The advantage of this format is that it can be delivered over current plant and equipment as if it were a 2D HDTV signal. While the frame-compatible formats will enable support for stereoscopic 3D signaling almost immediately, work continues on an effort to define a long-term solution that will enable support for 3D content that can be delivered at resolutions and frame rates as high as 1080p60 for both eyes.”
Installed technology “enables delivery of 3D TV signals with little to no change in cable’s existing video on demand and switched digital video infrastructure to existing set-top boxes” and with little strain on existing cable bandwidths, said CableLabs CEO Paul Liao. “This system will deliver a high-definition 3D image to today’s new generation of 3D TVs regardless of their native display technology.” Cable- delivered 3D video will work “equally well with displays using active shutter glasses and with displays using passive polarized glasses,” said David Broberg, CableLabs’ vice president of consumer video technology.